Admiration
by Lily G Parker
Summary: Nell, Eric, and the team finished their case, but Eric still needs to talk to Nell. Neric! One-shot.


**A/N:**** So I know that I have not updated my story**_** Who Knew?**_** for a while, but I have not had the chance to. I promise it is not over and I am working on the third chapter, but school is making me so busy. In the meantime, here is another Neric story. Please read and review. I hope you enjoy!**

**-Lily**

* * *

Nell and Eric sat in their red swivel chairs, extremely frustrated. The team was working on the murder of Petty Officer Sean Pilard. They had three pictures from security cameras of suspects. They should have been able to figure out who this guy was. But the first picture was too blurry to run through facial rec. The guy seemed to know where the second and third cameras were and successfully avoided them. All they could do was sit and wait for him to show up on some new security footage.

* * *

Callen and Sam had just finished searching the victim's house, but they had not found anything unusual. As they walked out the front door, Callen pulled his phone out of his pocket to call Nell and Eric. He was beyond annoyed. This case was supposed to be one of the easier ones and it had already been two days.

"Yeah, Callen?" Eric said.

"What do you got?"

"Sorry, Callen," Eric began. "We don't have anything," Nell finished for her partner. They glanced at each other. Eric smiled slightly and Nell blushed, remembering what she said when she first met Eric: Nell tended to finish the sentences of men she admired. _She just admitted that she admired me again,_ Eric thought.

"Okay, guys, well, call if you get any—" Callen stopped mid-sentence as Sam shushed him. Callen hung up without saying goodbye. He looked over to Sam with a questioning look, but then he heard it. A man with dark hair was running away from the back of the house. Sam pointed to himself and then to the car. Callen nodded and took off after the man. Sam hopped into the car and hurried to cut the man off. Callen gained on the man as he was the faster runner. Sam stopped the car directly in front of him. Sam hopped out of the car and shouted, "Stop! Federal agents!"

The man pulled his gun and pointed it directly at Sam. Immediately the two agents drew their guns.

"You don't want to do this," Callen said in a warning tone. The man looked toward the blue eyed agent and saw the gun. If he pulled the trigger he was dead. He laid the gun gently on the ground and raised both of his hands into the air. Callen pulled his handcuffs out and cuffed him while his partner kept his gun trained on the man.

They took him back to the boatshed and got Nell and Eric to identify him. They could tell it was the same man as from the security footage, but they needed a confession. Nell and Eric ran facial rec and found out that his name was Paul Smith, a long time enemy of Sean Pilard. They grinned and gave each other the normal under-hand high-five.

Sam and Callen were able to get a written confession out of Smith within an hour of holding him. Everyone was glad that the case was over.

* * *

Up in Ops, the two techies were working on their case reports. Nell finished hers very quickly and sent hers to Hetty via email. Eric looked over to her screen and frowned slightly. _How could she already be done?_ he thought as he kept typing his report. He knew why he was not done, but he did not want to admit it to himself. He kept glancing over at the red-headed analyst, but he was lying to himself when he thought, _There's no real reason._

As Nell sent off her report and looked over to her partner. "Hey, I'll be right back," she said and walked off with a bounce in her step. She walked down to Hetty's office, glad she could go home and relax with no case hanging over her head.

"Hetty, I'm heading home. I just sent you my report."

"Alright, Ms. Jones, but I think that you should stay and help your partner finish up his report. Something has been on his mind since, or should I say before, the case was finished," all-knowing Hetty replied with a smirk. Nell was concerned for the well-being of Eric, but some of her worry slipped away when she saw Hetty smiling. "Now, shoo," Hetty finished waving her hands away from herself.

Nell ambled back up the stairs, trying to figure out what she had meant. _She always talks in riddles!_ she thought, _Well, I guess Eric has been acting nervous. Maybe he'll be able to tell me when he finishes his report._

Nell completed her thought as the doors to Ops swished open and she walked quietly in, seeming unnoticed by Eric until he said without looking up from his computer screen, "Hey Nell, you gonna head home for tonight?"

"Actually, I was thinking about helping you, so that you could head home too."

"Oh…you don't have to…I'm almost done," Eric awkwardly replied.

"No, it's okay. I want to help," Nell said, realizing that, even though she was doing it on Hetty's orders, she really did want to help. She would not allow her mind to analyze what that thought meant.

"Ummm…Okay," Eric said. He seemed even more nervous than he had before. Nell sat down and started typing up part of his report.

Eric kept giving furtive glances in Nell's direction. Nell kept pretending she did not notice. The glances made her tense up and sent her mind into overdrive. _What is up with him? Is my hair messy?_ She brushed her hand through her already perfect hair. _Why does he keep looking at me? I don't get it._ She looked over at him just to see him glance at her again. She looked away quickly. She would talk to him when they finished the report.

They finished the report in record time. They really could work well together; Hetty had been right in bringing her to the team. Eric sent it off and Nell held her hand out for their under-hand high-five and Eric gave one to her smiling a genuine smile, but his smile soon faltered, his face instead covered with a look of uncertainty. Nell immediately noticed.

"Hey, what's wrong?" Nell asked softly, reaching over and squeezing his shoulder.

"I need to talk to you, but first I need to go tell Hetty I finished my report."

"Okay," Nell said with a very confused expression. She did not expect his nervousness to be related with needing to talk to her. She followed him with her eyes as he went downstairs to talk to Hetty.

"I finished my report, Hetty," Eric said as he walked into her office.

"Okay," Hetty replied, looking up from her computer. As he started walking away, she added, "And stop acting so nervous. She will say yes." Eric's step faltered as he walked up the stairs, but he did not stop completely.

The doors to Ops swished open and Nell looked up and smiled as if to reassure Eric of something she did not know about. Eric walked over to his swivel chair and sat down. Nell spun her chair so that they were facing each other.

"Okay, Eric, what's up?"

"Well…" Eric said, but he was so nervous that he could not finish his sentence.

"Eric, this is one time I can't finish your sentence," Nell said. She was smiling, but her eyes showed how worried she really was. Eric smiled, _Maybe Hetty was right._ Eric looked over to his partner as she blushed because she had just said she liked him…for the second time that day. Somehow, she had known exactly what to say and do to boost his confidence level.

"Do you want to go out to dinner sometime with me?" Eric rushed out so that it sounded like one word. By some miracle, Nell had understood him, but she could not process his words. _Did he just ask me out on a date?_ she thought.

"Well, okay then…" Eric said, thinking that the no response was because she wanted to say no. He got up and started to walk dejectedly away as Nell started to come back to her senses. She pulled on his arm as he walked by her.

"Yes," she said simply, looking over to her partner. She was surprised, but she had been denying this thing between them for too long.

"Wait, what?" Eric said as he slowly turned back to her. She rolled her eyes.

"Yes I would like to come with you." _Sometimes it was hard to get simple information through that amazing brain of his,_ she thought lovingly. _Wait lovingly? Yes, lovingly_. She finally accepted how much she liked her partner. Comprehension dawned on Eric's face and a smile spread over it.

"How about tomorrow evening?"

"That sounds great," Nell said as her smile matched Eric's.

"It's a date then…Well, if that's what you want it to be." Nell rolled her eyes again and punched his arm gently.

"It's a date."

* * *

**A/N:**** Thank you guys for taking the time to read this. I would really appreciate it if you would review. They mean a lot to me. **

**-Lily **


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